red
by fleur hazel
Summary: a collection of little percabeth drabbles/one shots based on the album "red" by taylor swift.
1. state of grace

_State of Grace_

" _These are the hands of fate_

 _You're my Achilles heel_

 _This is the golden age of something good_

 _And right and real."_

Annabeth laid on the balcony of the Plaza Hotel, the slash on her side a sickly color of green, oozing out of the bandages around it. Her face was pale, the poison slowly seeping through her system as she waited for the nectar to do its job of cleaning out the wound. Will Solace had used all of the energy he had left to heal her, and left her out on the balcony to get some fresh air and alone time. Percy sat next to her, quiet, looking disheveled but unharmed.

He explained to her what had happened back there, how she had saved him from the blade of Ethan Nakamura, the blade that was going to stab him right in the small of his back. His Achilles point. How had she known that? Her instincts had told her that Percy was in danger, that she needed to move to protect him _right then_ , and her instincts hadn't failed her. But now, she was paying the price for her sacrifice; a small sacrifice, she would say, if it had saved Percy's life. It did.

She sat in silence, drinking in his explanation of the Achilles process. She was his _tether_. Annabeth had been what reeled Percy back out of the river, his lifeline to the mortal world. Her silence was a sign of awe - Percy felt so deeply connected to her, that he remained in the mortal world for _her_ and her alone. She had kept him here once again, saving his life by taking the cursed knife that would have ended his life, and led to the fall of Olympus. She felt like bursting into tears, or punching him, or anything, but she could barely move. Instead, she gave him a weak smile, gave him some witty remark about being a Seaweed Brain, and moved on. He trusted her with his life, with his tether to the mortal world, with the location of his Achilles point. The small of his back was his Achilles heel, but he was hers.


	2. red

p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"uspan lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Red/span/u/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';""Losing him was blue like I never known, br /Missing him was dark grey, all alone,br /Forgetting him was like trying to knowbr /Somebody you've never met/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"But loving him was red"/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Her best friend was gone. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"His body was nowhere to be found, possibly incinerated by Mount St. Helens in an explosion that em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"idiot/em had caused by himself. The blast had finished off the rest of the telekhines, and with the help of Dedalus, she had returned to camp… alone. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"It felt empty without the warm presence of Percy. As much as Annabeth would hate to admit it, he was a beacon of hope to not only her, but the rest of camp. Things were looking grim recently, with the news of Luke, the very man she admired and looked up to, turning over to Kronos and abandoning Camp Half-Blood. Her teary delivery of the news to the war council shook the room to its core, leaving a deafening silence. Chiron's face was overtaken with a solemn, defeated expression. Silena burst into tears, only to be comforted by a stoic looking Beckendorf. The council decided that they would wait until the end of the week for Percy to reappear, and if he didn't return, they would burn his shroud./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The week went by slowly, the weather of camp taking on the emotions of its campers. Dark, grey skies loomed over the strawberry fields. The lake churned, uncharacteristic white caps appearing on the water, which should have been impossible, if it weren't for Poseidon. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The seventh day hit. He never returned. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The campers gathered in the amphitheatre, with the Hephaestus cabin leading the shroud to the middle of the arena. Everybody gathered around, with Chiron giving a long, heartfelt speech that Annabeth couldn't bear to listen to. He was em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"gone/em, and it was her fault, because she didn't stay behind to be with him. She lost her best friend, and it was her fault. She was alone. Grover and Tyson were nowhere to be found, still navigating the labyrinth, Percy was gone, and she was alone. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"He was a wild force to be reckoned with, always impulsive, never jumping into battle with a plan. Purely passion and instinct. He was her polar opposite, and it drove her crazy in all the best ways. Things ended to suddenly, and she had a burning feeling of regret that she didn't kiss him before it was too late. The kiss they shared before they ran into battle was everything she had ever wanted. Standing there, with Chiron and the rest of camp standing around Percy's funeral pyre, she realized she loved him. The final kiss, the last time she would see him again, was what she needed to realize that. Before she knew it, his shroud went up into flames, the blue silk burning bright red. /spanspan lang="EN"br style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" clear="all" /span/p 


	3. treacherous

_Treacherous_

 _"_ _Forever going with the flow,_

 _But you're friction._

 _This slope is treacherous,_

 _This path is reckless,_

 _This slope is treacherous,_

 _And I like it."_

Annabeth had always played it safe. In all her year's at camp, she trained hard, stuck to the rules, and never strayed from the status quo. A daughter of Athena, she knew she was intelligent, always thinking she was making the right choices. She knew what was best for her, and that was Luke. She had always looked up to him, admired him, ever since he saved her at seven years old. He was her _hero_.

Since that day they found her, quivering behind a giant piece of aluminum in a junkyard with nothing but a hammer, she loved him. At first in a platonic, almost brotherly way, but as she grew older, her crush intensified. He was her fate, she knew that from the get-go. Nothing was going to separate them. They were going to be together forever, he promised. They were family.

But after he disappeared, after he pledged himself to Kronos, she found herself slipping. How could she love and stay loyal to someone who abandoned her? He _abandoned_ her. Thalia wouldn't have done this. Why did he? She could feel her love for him dimming, like a candle slowly losing oxygen, the longer they were apart from each other. They couldn't survive without each other, she knew it. After five years of being together, she knew he would come back to her. He would denounce his allegiance to Kronos and come back. He had to. He _promised_.

Annabeth had always played it safe… until Percy appeared in her life. He was the _one_. He had to be. He was the one that would take her on her first quest, the child of the Great Prophecy that had been haunting her dreams for years. His carefree attitude and her tendency to play by the rules clashed in the worst kind of way, a friction developing between the two, but she couldn't let that get in her way. She was going to make it out, to see the world, to save Luke from whatever he thought his fate was. She wouldn't let Percy's reckless tendencies ruin her grand plan. She and Luke were meant to be, she knew it.

But she seemed to be slipping down a path she didn't expect. The more time she spent with Percy, the more she began to like him, to laugh at his _stupid_ jokes, to appreciate his prowess in battle. He was keeping her from her goal, but… she didn't seem to mind it. But still, she held herself back. Percy was her friend, _just_ her friend, but she had a feeling that their fates were intertwined more than she'd like to admit. They grew closer, partners in battle, forever at each other's side as they defended Olympus, defended each other's lives. She could feel herself slipping. Slipping out of love with Luke, as she saw his deeds become more and more sinister, feeling nothing but… remorse, for the boy she once knew, and slipping deeper into Percy. Metaphorically, of course. She was falling for him, every time he charged into battle, Riptide raised high, taunting monsters with his floppy, black hair falling into his face, Annabeth quickly following in suit. She didn't mind following him, she decided. He wasn't a bad person to follow.

Soon, she decided to herself, that she would follow him anywhere.


	4. i knew you were trouble

_I Knew You Were Trouble_

 _"_ _I knew you were trouble when you walked in_

 _So, shame on me now_

 _Flew me to places I'd never been_

 _Now I'm lying on the cold hard ground"_

Ever since she met him, Annabeth knew Percy was trouble. It was sort of a given for demigods; trouble followed them everywhere they went. But she followed him. He was hers, and she was his, and that was the way that fate had determined it would be. She had no choice in the matter. Annabeth loved Percy for all that he was. They spent every waking moment together, whether it was on a quest, or training, or recovering demigods and bringing them to camp. They were a matching set, and no one dared to split them up.

That was, until Percy went missing.

By the third day he was gone, Annabeth was in a panic. She hadn't been this scared facing Titans, or being led through the labyrinth by Daedalus' horrible spider. The one person she was meant to be with was gone, and no demigod or satyr across the _country_ had seen him. Each new piece of news, or lack therefore of, felt like a laestrygonian was sitting on her chest. The pressure got heavier and heavier as she continued to push herself, flying on Blackjack as far as the eye could see, searching for him.

He had opened her eyes, taught her to take risks, helped her through so much, saved her life countless times… He taught her things she would have never been able to teach herself, even as a daughter of Athena. They needed each other like an electric current needed a battery. His disappearance had taken a toll on her, one that even the newest campers could see.

 _Where was he?_

She was lost without him, the one person that had been such a consistent figure in her life for the past five years, the one person she trusted more than anything. The person who held the _sky_ for her. But now, she felt crushed, like Icarus falling from the sky; her wings were broken, the winds of life taking her directions she wasn't completely sure of, sending her plummeting towards the ocean. But this time, Percy wasn't there to ride a wave and catch her.


	5. all too well

p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"uspan lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"All Too Well/span/u/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';""'Cause there we are again on that little town street/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"You almost ran the red cause you were looking over at me/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Wind in my hair, I was there, I remember it all too well/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Photo album on the counter/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Your cheeks were turning red/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin sized bed/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"And your mother's telling me stories 'bout you on the tee ball team/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"You told me about your past, thinking your future was me."/span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in; line-height: normal;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/em/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"They were going 50 down the road towards the little cabin at Montauk, with the blue peeling paint, the flood boards covered in sand, and the sounds of the ocean crashing in the distance. It was the first time Annabeth had been invited on the family vacation to Montauk, and the Jackson-Blofis family was going all out. Percy was behind the wheel of Paul's Prius, windows down, Annabeth's unruly princess curls whipping in the wind as they arrived outside of the cabin. Putting the car in park, he turned to give Annabeth a lopsided smile that nearly made her heart stop. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Pulling out the grocery bags filled to the brim with frozen pizzas, cherry cokes, and cookie dough, they trudged inside to meet Sally and Paul. Sally was busy dusting away all the cobwebs and opening the windows, filling the cabin with the smell of the sea breeze, a smell Annabeth had come to love over the years. Not because it reminded her of Percy or anything, definitely not. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"They all pitched in, cleaning the cabin up while throwing jokes back and forth, singing along to a playlist Percy had chosen. It felt like home. It felt like family. Annabeth hadn't had much experience with either of those concepts, but this felt… perfect. She wanted to capture this moment, to bottle it forever and replay it as many times as she wanted. Night fell, and the pizzas got thrown into the oven as Paul and Percy went to work setting up the board game for the night. Sally and Annabeth sat at the bar, flipping through a photo album Sally had brought to show Annabeth. Percy's mother had always loved Annabeth, and was absolutely thrilled to share some of Percy's earliest memories with her as they sat together, giggling over pictures of Percy in the bathtub as a baby, Percy in the very same cabin as a child, Percy in a full baseball uniform missing one of his front teeth. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Everything felt perfect. It felt like home. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"That's because it em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"was/em home. Her home was with Percy, who held her firmly against his side and she leaned her head on his shoulder, giving his neck a quick kiss as she forced him to go bankrupt in Monopoly as he cursed in ancient Greek. Sally and Paul burst into laughter, admiring the two demigods with a sparkle in their eyes. Percy and Annabeth were meant to be, it was clear to em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"everybody/em, and Sally was glad they finally realized that they were perfect for each style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanWhat they had been needing was right there in front of them, and now they knew that all too well./span/p 


End file.
